Character Creation Overview
Character Creation Introduction The world of Faerodune is a dark and hopeless purgatory where heroes no longer tread. The eons of war, famine, death, and suffering has left civilization almost defeated. This era has allowed great empires to rise giving almighty power to a single person who can, with the swipe of a quill, bring down armies of thousands supported by the greatest mages and monster cavalry gold can buy. These kings, queens, emperors, and lords have destroyed the common hero. They have used their gold to buy their futures and their victories leaving those that hold the actual swords nameless. Now the wars are won by kings, monsters slain by rich nobles, evil abolished by lavishly dressed lords with bulging treasuries with no mention or even minute due paid to the brave person who held the weapon that actually brought down the monster, the army, or the vile overlord... No mention at all... Nowadays there are only a few true adventuring companies left in the world that are members of the Confederated Alliance of Adventurers (or Adventurer's Guild). Their ranks are bolstered by spoiled over-privelaged squires, ex-soldiers, and Arcane Academy Grads barely able to cast a cantrip. It seems most the great heroes and champions of this generation are gone. By-products of the Imperial Era's mass-lethargy, propagation, conditioning, and technology. Evil is still there, even more now than in a long while. The common-folk mostly dont hear about it anymore safe within the confines of civilization or behind the Imperial Army's Pikes. But those days are coming to a close as the Empire's grow more corrupted, their infrastructure's rotting from the inside, as the tides of evil and darkness swell beyond the confinement of the shadowy wilds, Under-Helm, and Ruins of old... Not long now folks will be forced to face, once again, their own mortality without the help of a noble lord's sprawling army... Then... Then they will beg for a brave soul to save them... A champion... A HERO... Step 1 : Creating a Unique Character Concept Sometimes, creating a character that feels original and stands out from others of the same class and race can seem like a challenge. It's easy to fall into playing the stereotype of a race or class—the ale-swilling dwarven fighter with the battleaxe, the quick and wise elven ranger roaming the woodlands with a longbow, the sneaky and childlike halfling rogue, and so on. While there's nothing wrong with these, and they can be a lot of fun—after all, there's a reason they became cultural archetypes in the first place—sometimes you want to try something new. Presented here are some techniques you can use to help you break away from stereotypes. Originality: If you strive too hard to be original, you'll likely be disappointed when you discover that someone else has already implemented your idea in a book, film, game, or other kind of media. Yet, while original ideas are hard to come by, every person you meet is unique, shaped by his or her individual experiences. Rather than strive for an original concept, try focusing on the experiences that define your character's life and give him his personality and point of view. Specific experiences will help move you away from the stereotypical and cliche. The Third Idea: When you're brainstorming ideas, it sometimes helps to reject the first and second ideas that leap to mind, and instead consider the third, fourth, and fifth ideas you come up with. This way, you're challenging yourself to explore wider, more interesting possibilities full of unexplored story potential. The easy ideas that spring to mind first probably do so because you've seen them before. Opposites: When you're stuck on an characteristic that strikes you as boring, plain, or stereotypical, decide that the opposite is instead true of yourself. For instance, if you're playing the aforementioned dwarven fighter, perhaps one of the following holds: * You have taken a vow against drinking, can't hold your liquor, or act in a peculiar, eccentric way when drunk. * You can't grow a beard. * You favor a weapon that is not a hammer, axe, crossbow, or other typical dwarven weapon. * You live in a forest or on an island rather than in the hills and mountains favored by most dwarves. * You are a pacifist who loathes violence. * You deeply pity or love orcs and goblins. Any one of these character quirks can prove ripe for character development and story hooks in the campaign. Steal Shamelessly: Sometimes when starting a new character, you just need a good template or foundation from which to build. Characters from literature, comics, history, real life, or television and film can provide that foundation in an instant. The key is to alter various aspects of the model character until you have changed enough to have an altogether different concept. How would Count Dracula be different as an elven wizard? What about as a halfling cleric? Are you obsessed with feasting on blood, or are you simply ancient, creepy, solitary, and mysterious? What about reinterpreting Julius Caesar as a human rogue or a gnome illusionist? Is this human rogue one of three mobsters scheming to eliminate the competition and rule a city the way Caesar eliminated his competitors to rule Rome? Has yourgnome illusionist received a prophetic message predicting his own death, as Caesar did from the soothsayer? Building on the foundations of established characters or people gives you a framework, at which point you just need to give yourself different circumstances in order to inspire a new idea, one that will grow on its own as you continue to play. The initial inspiration or model you choose helps you come to grips with your character quickly without feeling like you have to reinvent the wheel. Another way to accomplish this is to combine notable traits of two disparate characters from media or history. For instance, how would you play a character with Sherlock Holmes' skill at deduction and Hamlet's indecision? Achilles' battle prowess paired with Nikola Tesla's inventive mind? Merlin's magic with Marie Curie's search for scientific truth? Joan of Arc's faithful conviction and Napoleon's overwhelming ambition? The rest of this section dives deep into your background, starting from birth and early childhood through adolescence and into early adulthood. Each bit has a number of questions to think (or write) about. As you go through them, you might find a question doesn't apply you. That's an opportunity to instead think about why it doesn't apply, and what that means about your relationship to the rest of the world. Likewise, if you find you have a short answer to a question, especially "yes" or "no," that's an opportunity to dig deeper into why that's the case. Above all, don't let creating a background become a burden for you. The goal is to help you play a character, not to paralyze you with decisions you don't want to make right now. Step 2: Choosing a Race Every character belongs to a race, one of the many intelligent humanoid species in the world of Faerodune. The most common player character races are dwarves, elves, halflings, and humans. The race you choose contributes to your character’s identity in an important way, by establishing a general appearance and the natural talents gained from culture and ancestry. Your character’s race grants particular racial traits, such as special senses, proficiency withcertain weapons or tools, proficiency in one or more skills, or the ability to use minor spells. These traits sometimes dovetail with the capabilities of certain classes (see step 2). For example, the racial traits of lightfoot halflings make them exceptional rogues, and Noble elves tend to be powerful wizards. Sometimes playing against type can be fun, too. Halfling paladins and Runedorian dwarf wizards, for example, can be unusual but memorable characters. Your race also increases one or more of your ability scores, which you determine in step 4. Step 3: Choosing a Class Every adventurer is a member of a class. Class broadly describes a character’s vocation, what special talents he or she possesses, and the tactics he or she is most likely to employ when exploring a dungeon, fighting monsters, or engaging in a tense negotiation. Your character receives a number of benefits from your choice of class. Many of these benefits are class features—capabilities (including spellcasting) that set your character apart from members of other classes. You also gain a number of proficiencies: armor, weapons, skills, saving throws, and sometimes tools. Your proficiencies define many of the things your character can do particularly well, from using certain weapons to telling a convincing lie. Step 4: Ability Scores Much of what your character does in the game depends on his or her six abilities: Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma. Each ability has a score, which is a number you record on your character sheet. [[Building a Backstory|'Step 5: Building a Backstory']] We flesh out a backstory for our character by using a set of tables which you can choose from at will or at random.. You then choose your character's background traits and Regional Traits which describes where he or she came from, his or her original occupation, and the character’s place in the world of Faerodune. Step 6: Customizing Your Persona Here we find a picture and describe your character. Find their alignment and deity, flesh out their personality, and finally list any factions, guilds, organizations, etc. they may be a part of... Step 7: Character Sheet The final Step is securing all of this info on a Character sheet. Quick Jump Menu # Introduction # Character Creation Overview # Choosing a Race # Choosing a Class # Ability Scores # Building a Backstory # Customizing your Persona # Equipment # Magic and Spells # Stepping into Faerodorn